RICK @ the RACES (14 April 2012)
14 April Can Am Speedway, Lafargeville NY Practice Day
14 April Fulton Speedway, NY
Once again, New York State was my racing destination for this weeks report. The Can Am Speedway, at Lafargeville, a track I’ve always considered as local tracks , was holding their pre season practice days on Saturday and Sunday. My plan was to drop in and see some of Saturdays action before moving further south to the Fulton Speedway season opener.
I left my home in Cornwall , Ontario , mid morning and was at Can Am by 12 30 pm. Practice was scheduled to start at 1-00pm.
The first team I noticed when entering the pits, was that of Chris Raabe with their 358 Modified. They were busy setting the car up, and getting ready to go out on track .
Chris wasn’t the only one of my racing buddies in attendance,
Luke Whitteker was there with his 358, as well as Sportsman drivers 
Brent Kelsey
and Steve Barber . The practice was open to all of Can Am’s divisions so it resulted in a wide variety of machines taking to the track.
I joined my good friend Rebecca Eisele, the Can Am photographer on the exit of turn four, to snap some of the action.
The logistics of my days racing meant I couldn’t stay at Can Am too long, as the Fulton event had a scheduled 4-00 pm start.
For the second section of my day, I was joined by www.rickattheraces.com web master Craig Revelle, so after parking his car at the Lafargeville , Sunoco station we set off down 181 for Fulton.
As we pulled off 181 at the Central Square exit, we spotted something you don’t see every day. A street legal winged pavement Modified pulled out of a gas station, in front of us.
We followed it for about a mile down the road to a set of lights before it turned off . It was definitely a wild looking street machine and while stopped at the lights Craig managed to get a picture of it… check it out !
At about 3-30 pm we arrived at Fulton to find a busy pit area full of Sportsman and Patriot Sprint Cars, the headlining division. As well as these, there were a handful of the domestic Late Models that they run at this track.
The 4-00pm start time was a great bonus for me and my other photographer buddies as we stationed ourselves on turns 3 and 4. The late afternoon sun light meant that most of the event could be captured without using a ‘flash’. If the good lighting wasn’t enough to keep us happy, Sprint Car driver Jared Zimbardi treated us all to a spectacular flip. I think every photographer around me, managed to capture that one.
The big race of the day for the Patriot Sprints was dominated and won by Quebec’s Steve Poirier,
while Tim Sears Jr, (who was on ‘double duty’) took both Sportsman and Late Model main events.
The show was over nice and early ( at around 7-00 pm) so by 9-00pm Craig and I were having supper at our favourite Watertown, eatery , The Tilted Kilt . With it being Stanley Cup play off time , I was able to watch the third period of the Ottawa Senators V New York Rangers hockey game, which the ‘Sens’ went on to win in overtime.
From the ‘Tilted Kilt’ I took Craig back to Lafargeville to pick up his car , before we both headed back to Canada.